Thursday, February 11, 1999 Published at 10:40 GMTUKLast wish of Moors murder motherAnn West: Hindley has told so many liesThe mother of Moors murder victim Leslie Anne Downey will reiterate her wish that Myra Hindley should never be freed, in an interview recorded before her death this week.

Ann West also vowed to haunt Hindley from beyond the grave "for the rest of her life">

Leslie Anne was murdered by Hindley and Ian Brady after they abducted her on Boxing Day in 1964.

They were convicted in May 1966 for the murders of the 10-year-old and Edward Evans, 17.

Both were jailed for life, and the judge recommended that they serve "a very long time".

Police searched the Lancashire moors for bodies

Brady was additionally convicted for murdering 12-year-old John Kilbride. He has said he never wants to be released.

Both later confessed to the further killings of Pauline Reade, 16, and Keith Bennett, 12, burying their bodies on Saddleworth Moor on the edge of the Peak District.

The fresh confessions counted against Hindley and contributed to the home secretary's decision never to release her.

Myra Hindley is determined that she has atoned for the Moors murders, and that after 31 years, she should be released from prison.

'Thorn in her side'

Ann West fought tirelessly against Hindley's release, and was determined that her struggle with liver cancer would not weaken her campaign. Brady, who is

It was Mrs West's wish that the interview, to be broadcast by Sky News on Monday, be shown after her death. Vowing to haunt Hindley from beyond the grave, she said: "I will still be a thorn in her side after I pass on, I will haunt that woman for the rest of her life.

"She's told so many lies over 30 years that she'd go on lying and lying and lying, just to get her freedom.

"That's all she wants out of life, her
freedom."

Lesley Anne Downey was stripped, gagged, sexually assaulted and strangled before being buried in a shallow grave on Lancashire's bleak Saddleworth Moor.

Her mother saw photographs taken by her daughter's killers in the hours leading up to her death.

Mrs West also had to listen to their tape recording of her daughter's cries for mercy.

She always believed that Lesley Ann died at Hindley's own hands.

'I can't wait to join Lesley'

But she said in 1997 she would be able to "rest in peace" if she knew that Hindley would never be released.

Her wish was granted that year when the High Court agreed with successive home secretaries who had prevented the killer's release.

In the interview, Mrs West, who died at her home in Fallowfield, Manchester, told Sky she drew comfort from the belief she would be reunited with her daughter in death.

She said: "I speak to Lesley, I have done from the night she went missing, and I can't wait to join her, but I didn't want it to happen this way, I wanted Hindley to go before me, actually."